The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade observed its 43rd anniversary Friday, inspiring people across the country to speak out in support of, and against, the reproductive rights women have in the 21st century.

But for older generations who fought for abortion access, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a reminder of a different era, one in which seeking an abortion was not only illegal, but also perilous to the point of life-threatening.

Leni Silverstein, now an acclaimed anthropologist, is one of those women. She says she decided to tell her story “because no woman should ever have to go through” what she experienced in 1966.

Silverstein was 22 and a recent graduate of the University of Chicago when she found out she was pregnant. Armed with the knowledge that she was not ready for a child, she turned to an underground network of abortion providers, many of whom operated in unsanitary conditions. She scrounged up $200 — $1,460 adjusted for inflation — for the procedure by borrowing from sympathetic girlfriends.

“I was told to meet at a location in downtown Chicago,” she said during a conference call organized by Planned Parenthood. “When I got there, I was blindfolded and driven to an undisclosed location. I was incredibly scared.”

She later added, somewhat jokingly, that she felt as if she had plunged herself “deep into the mafia.”

The place to which she was taken was an apartment with what she calls “provisional” accommodations. There was a hospital table, but not much else — not even a nurse. A male doctor gave her what she thinks was a local anesthetic and some pills to take home, and she was also given a card with a number to call in case anything went wrong afterwards.

Although Silverstein was terrified, she says that nothing — the fear, the risks, the stigma — would have kept her from getting the procedure.

“There was no question that I was going to have an abortion," she recalled. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I had to do and I was going to make it happen.”

Another women who had an abortion pre-Roe expressed a similar sentiment.

“I would have walked through broken glass to get this abortion, and there was no way I was not going to do it,” said Pamela Mason, who had an abortion in 1971 when she was 18 years old.

Mason and her boyfriend recycled soda bottles to scrape up “penny by penny” the $150 necessary to cover the cost of the procedure. The couple then embarked on a 500-mile journey from Columbus, Ohio, to New York City, where she knew she could get access to an abortion.

Directly after the procedure, Mason and her boyfriend hopped right back in the car and drove the 500 miles home, against medical advice. The pair could barely cover the cost of gas, let alone a motel for the night.

Despite their ordeals, Mason and Silverstein consider themselves lucky. Both survived their pre-Roe procedures and neither suffered consequences to their reproductive health. For many women, however, that's not the case.

In 1965, just under 200 women died in the U.S. due to illegal abortions. Although that number was down from 2,700 in the 1930s, illegal abortions still accounted for 17% of the nation's deaths attributable to pregnancy and childbirth, according to a Guttmacher Institute report.

The decision about abortion must remain a decision for the woman and her doctor to make, not the government.

Even today, it’s estimated that 68,000 women worldwide die of unsafe abortions annually, with another 5 million suffering from long-term complications, according to the World Health Organization.

Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation for America, fears that the number of unsafe abortions will grow as legislation continues to chip away at landmark cases such as 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the legal right to an abortion was again upheld.

Specifically, Richards cites legislation in Texas that threatens to close down all but 10 health centers available to some 5.4 million women in the state.

"The disturbing reality for Texas women is reminiscent of life before Roe v. Wade,” she said. “Women are traveling hundreds of miles, crossing state lines and waiting weeks to get an abortion — if they can at all.”

The Supreme Court will hear arguments for Whole Women’s Health v. Cole — its most important reproductive rights case in almost 25 years — in early March. The case will determine the validity of the Texas law, known as HB2, which reproductive rights advocates say imposes burdensome restrictions on abortion providers. Since HB2 passed in 2013, more than half of the state’s abortion clinics have been forced to shutter.

In an amicus brief filed with the court, the National Network of Abortion Funds cited women like Tiffany, a 30-year old uninsured Latina from Flint, Texas. Her story is eerily similar to those of a pre-Roe era.

Tiffany — who is known only by her first name — found out she was pregnant at 11 weeks, but by the time she was able save the $300 necessary to cover the cost of an abortion, she had reached 18 weeks and the cost of the procedure had jumped to $1,700, excluding transportation costs for a 3-hour round trip to Dallas.

Activists fear that a ruling in favor of HB2 will continue the erosion of reproductive rights nationwide. Ultimately, it would embolden Texas and other states to continue down the path of restricting abortion services, and, by extension, patients' rights. Experiences like Tiffany’s would become the norm rather than the exception, they say. To some extent they already have.

“Most people thought we were well past the days of women taking matters into their own hands, but researchers estimate that over 100,000 Texas women have tried to end a pregnancy on their own without medical assistance,” Richards said, referencing a study published last November. “This cannot be what it means to be a woman living in 21st century America.”

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